However, having traveled along a badly maintained road full of pot holes and water for one hour to the lake that is situated to the east of Jeddah, Arab News came across the municipality’s newly-built sewage water recycling plant where tanks are offloading their contents instead of in the lake.
Around six trucks were already lined up at the plant at 1 p.m. to offload sewage. Amid the hustle and bustle were expatriates selling bottles of water to drivers who would rest before returning to the city to collect more sewage.
The area around the lake is well maintained and green, especially because of the recent rains. To stamp out the problem of truck drivers dumping sewage into the lake, security guards have been stationed around the single road that leads to it.
A gate has also been put up to ensure no trucks are able to venture near it.
Assad Sahioun is an engineer for Suido Kiko Middle East (SKME), one of the companies that the Jeddah municipality contracted last year to empty the lake and recycle sewage.
“We receive 1,500 tanks on average a day,” said Sahioun. “We work on recycling them during the entire day through two systems — a new unit and a conventional system of recycling,” he said.
Sahioun said the new system produces clearer water, but all recycled water is for agricultural and industrial use.
Trucks are examined before their contents are taken. The plant turns back some 500 trucks a day because the sewage contains high levels of oil.
“The sewage in these tanks needs further recycling and this can be done at the other treatment plant in the Al-Kumrah district, south of Jeddah’s industrial area. The oil might affect our machines,” said Sahioun.
A water expert, who requested his name not to be published and who is familiar with the Musk Lake, said the water level in the lake is some 35 cm higher than normal.
He added that the lake no longer has a dam, which was removed following the ban on trucks dumping sewage there and the lowering of the water level.
“Things were unorganized until last year. Trucks used to come and dump sewage here without any supervision,” he said, adding that the water in the lake is rainwater and not sewage.
He added that the water level has increased because of the rain that fell on Wednesday and that it will get lower as time passes.
